Details Emerge In Bizarre Homicide

BERLIN – More details emerged this week in the case against a Pennsylvania man charged with first-degree murder after allegedly running over his elderly mother several times on Carey Rd. in Berlin late last Tuesday night, including a reported dispute over two pieces of property changing hands between them.

Steven Frederick Molin, 58, of Darby, Pa., remained behind bars this week, charged with first- and second-degree murder and manslaughter in the death of his mother, Emily Belle Molin, 85, also of Darby. Molin has essentially admitted running over his elderly mother at least three times in an incident he described as an accident during a bond review hearing. However, information in the statement of charges obtained this week suggests Molin might have had a motive in the incident.

Shortly before midnight on Aug. 31, the Worcester County Sheriff’s Office responded to a serious motor vehicle accident on Carey Rd. in Berlin.

From the beginning, Steven Molin did not deny running over his mother as many as three times, but has claimed the incident was an accident, caused in part by a faulty passenger side door on the 2008 Chevy work truck damaged in a different accident earlier in the day. However, a Worcester County Sheriff’s Office accident reconstructionist, after reviewing the physical evidence and interviewing Molin, determined the victim had been run over three times despite ample opportunity by the suspect to avoid hitting her after the first collision.

According to police reports, there was substantial physical evidence in the roadway including the victim’s shoes and articles of clothing along with blood and hair evidence with tire impressions through the middle of them. The report also indicates the victim’s shoe impressions were discovered on the back bumper and near the undercarriage and ball hitch of the work truck, suggesting she tried to stick her foot up to avoid being run over. After reviewing the physical evidence at the scene, detectives determined the incident was not merely a motor vehicle accident, according to police reports.

Detectives at the scene also noted the vehicle had a piece of rope tied to the passenger side door handle along with damage to the passenger side of the vehicle. When questioned about the rope and the damage, Molin allegedly told police at the scene, “I don’t know how much I should say to you,” before telling the officers he was involved in a different accident earlier in the day.

During an interview hours after the incident, Molin told police he had picked up the victim at a nursing home in Pennsylvania where she lived around 5:20 p.m. that night to take her to dinner. He then drove her to Evergreen Cemetery in Berlin to visit the grave of her late husband and his father, who had died in 1981. After a visit at the cemetery, Molin started driving his mother back to Darby, Pa. along Carey Rd. in northern Worcester County.

Molin told detectives while he was driving on Carey Rd., he thought his mother had fallen out of the vehicle. He told police the door swung open, but he did not see anything. At that point, he allegedly heard a thump and ran over the victim. He told detectives he then backed up and ran over her again. According to police reports, Molin told police he then thought the vehicle was on top of her, so he pulled forward, which is when he ran over the victim a third time.

Molin told police he then called 911 and the dispatcher told him not to touch the victim. He further told police he did not know anything about CPR or medical assistance.

Information contained in the statement of charges suggests the incident might have been more than an accident, however. According to police reports, Molin and his mother were scheduled to appear for a court hearing the next day, Sept. 1, on two pieces of property that were in his name. The purpose of the hearing was to transfer ownership of the two properties back into the victim’s name and the victim would then transfer the properties to the nursing home in order to allow her to continue to receive services from the facility, according to police reports.

A Sheriff’s deputy on the scene of the incident reportedly received a call from an employee of the nursing home where the victim lived advising that she had talked to Molin earlier that day and that he intentionally wrecked his truck because he was mad about the pending court issues regarding the two properties. The nursing home employee also told detectives Molin had allegedly threatened to blow her head off because of an argument she had with him.

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